Color photography



1941- w. SCHNEIDER 2,265,547

COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY Filed April 15, 1938 H J Absorp/ion of Pic/are Dyesfuffs in )Vegah've Ma/er/b/ Fig.2

Absorp/lbn of fi'ller Dyes and P/b/l/re Dyes of "ego/I've Mafer/b/ In venfor Mike/m Schneider By His Afforneys Patented Dec. 9, 1941 by mesne assignments, to General Aniline & Film Corporation, New York, N. Y.-, a corporation of Delaware Application April 15, 1938, Serial No. 202,257 In Germany April 19, 1937 1 Claim.

This invention relates to color photography and more particularly to a method of printing subtractive color negatives onto a suitable positive material. I

Hitherto the production of prints of originals, whether negative or positive, which have been made by the subtractive method, consisted, apart from the process which uses the component pictures and the combined copies thereof on a new maxima of the layers of the reproduction material and advantageously at the same time certain filters in orer to obtain this pure reproduction of color furthermore the sensitizing maxima and the position of the filters are so interconnected that as compared with the position in the exposure material the sensitizing maxima of the copying material lie at the points where the absorption maxima of the dyestuffs are in the original,

material, in the use of a multi-layer material whether this is negative or positive in nature. similar to the original and therefore made in re- The filter, on the other hand, must cover those spect of coloring and sensitizinglike the origin-a1 spectral regions which are within the injurious material. overlapping absorption regions of the dyestuffs By printing on such a material, as has been of the original on the one hand. On the other frequently recognized, insufliciently pure colors hand'it must cover the overlapping regions of the are obtained and in each copying process an unsensitizing dyestuffs which may still occur in spite avoidable loss of gradation and of color units of the employment of dyes with distinct absorpoccurs and with this there is a darkening of the tion bands. Since the invention made it necese color to an injurious degree. It has been prosary that the absorption maxima of the dyestuffs posed that, in producing the printing material, of the print and the sensitizing maxima of the instead of sensitizing in the red of the same copying film are identical it is clear that the overspectral zone as in ,the original material, there lapping regions both of the picture dyestuffs and should be sensitization in the infra-red and in of the sensitizing dyestuffs also must lie in simithismanner there has in fact been obtained a lar regions of the spectrum, so. that it is thus better color reproduction in this part of the possible to provide filters which, owing to suitspectrum. able choice. of the original dyestuffs as well as It is an object of the present invention to prothe reproduction sensitizers, cover the two overvide a method by which essentially improved sublapping regions. tractive colorpositives maybe obtained. If, therefore, the spectrum of thenegative' mae A further object is the provision of a positive 9 terial is to be as true a picture as possible of the and negative material by the use of which a sun spectrum with all the mixed colors, as is dedarkening of the successive prints is precluded. sirable in order to reproduce as truly as possible A further object is the provision of a process all the natural colors, the sensitizing specti um which makes it possible to produce a correct print of the copying material should show only three in color directly from a colored master picture. sharp bands in the blue, green and red regions Further objects will become apparent from the and so far as this is not possible by choice of the following detailed description and the annexed sensitizers, the overlappings which still exist drawing in which should be covered by direct choice of the printing Fig. 1 indicates the absorption of the dyestuffs light, that is-.to say of the filter. As, further, which form the color picture in the negative ma 40 these sensitizing ranges and the absorption maxterial or master picture, whereas ima of the dyestuffs forming the picture are to Fig. 2 shows the absorption of the same negalie in like positions the filter should automatically tive material where the overlapping parts are 111- cover the overlapping regions of the dyestuffs. tered out by means of filter dyes, (indicated by It follows that such dyestuffs should be selected dotted lines), and as have their absorption maximum in the region Fig. 3 shows the sensitization of the positive or which they are to cover. In known manner dyeprinting material according to my invention. stuff solutions may be used or colored layers, for This invention is based on the observation and example colored gelatin. The filter may consist, recognition of the ac rs which o n t e a if desired, of several individual filters for the inening of the reproduction, and consists in a methdividual overlapping regions arranged one b od by which the darkening is avoided so that it hind the other, or there may be several dyestuffs becomes possible to attain the desired goal, namein solution or in a layer. In the latter case parly a direct color copy without the circuitous methticularly, the manipulation is simple as compared 0d of producing components. For this purpose with the use of additive filters. there is used'a special position of the sensitizing If, for example, a copy is used the dyestuffs of which cover 580 to 620 my and 480 to 520 mu a copying filter may be inserted which contains Crystal Violet and p-naphthoxocarbocyanine which absorb in these regions respectively.

The printing material is-so sensitized that the maximumbf sensitivity of the-middle layer is 545 m and that of the layer adjacent the sup- U. S. Patents Numbers 2,178,612;-2,179,228; f

2,179,238; 2,179,244; 2,186,736; 2,186,732; 2,186,733; 2,186,734; 2,186,735; 2,186,849; 2,186,851, and application Serial No. 111,250, flied Nov. 17, 1936, in which the color pictures are produced by color development, according to the silverbleaching-out process, or according to the anti-'diazotate process. I

What I claim is:

The method of producing colored prints from subtractive master pictures which comprises illuminating a multi-layer color photographic light-sensitive element through a subtractive master picture and a series of filters, said multilayer color photographic light-sensitive element being sensitized with dyestuil's, the sensitizin! maxima of which correspond substantially with the maxima of absorption of the picture dyestuffs of said master image and the sensitizing ranges 01' which overlap within substantially the same spectral rangeas the overlap of absorptions of said picture dyestufis, said filters operating to absorb those wave lengths or the printing light which correspond substantially to the overlapping regions of said picture dyes and to the overlapping regions of sensitivity or said sensitizing dyestuffs. V

WILHELM SCHNEIDER. 

